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The war between animal activists and the Pentagon has raged for decades. You could say there's been a fair amount of collateral damage: thousands of goats and pigs have been mutilated, though the military argues the animals have not died in vain. So it's no surprise the animal rights camp is salivating over the blow it's about to inflict on the enemy. This week, by order of Congress, the Pentagon must present lawmakers with a written plan to phase out "live tissue training," military speak for slaying animals to teach combat medics how to treat severed limbs and gunshot wounds.

After receiving a tip-off from the public about poaching activities a team of forest rangers were quickly put together in Maharashtra, India. The resulting operation which was carried out on Feb 21 resulted in the recovery of 200 bombs, explosives, guns, ammunition, electric wire traps and deer skins. While the poachers were not present the officials know who they are and expect to make arrests later.

Singer Morrissey has cancelled his Feb. 26 appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" after learning that cast members of the A&E reality TV show "Duck Dynasty" will also be guests on the talk show. "As far as my reputation is concerned, I can't take the risk of being on a show alongside people who, in effect, amount to animal serial killers," Morrissey, a vegetarian and animal-rights activist, explained on his website. "If Jimmy cannot dump Duck Dynasty then we must step away." "Duck Dynasty" is a reality TV show that focuses on the Robertson family, which runs a business that makes products for duck hunters. Morrissey, 53, is a vocal proponent of animal rights who wrote the 1985 song "Meat is Murder."

The International Crane Foundation (ICF) is very pleased and relieved that an appropriate sentence was issued to the man who shot an adult male Whooping crane in South Dakota last April. The migrating adult crane was one of fewer than 300 individuals remaining in the Aransas/Wood Buffalo population, the only self-sustaining wild population of Whooping cranes in the world. Jeff Blachford, 26, was given a sentence that includes $85,000 in restitution (Compensation), 2 years probation, confiscation of his hunting rifle, and removal of his hunting and trapping rights anywhere in the U.S. for 2 years.

In a controversial new PETA commercial, award-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix puts himself into the position of the 1 trillion fish who are killed each year by the fish industry. In the video, shot by famous shark photographer Michael Muller, Phoenix narrates, "In water humans drown, just as fish suffocate on land. It's slow, and painful, and frighting." The Master star carries out possibly one of the scariest parts of his career as he desperately trashes underwater, each failed breath further filling his lungs with water. The ad brings awareness to the fact that we often choose to separate fish from land animals simply because they're different. Yet there is no difference in any animal on this earth, whether its human or fish, when it comes to feeling pain.

The Chinese State Forestry Administration has released details about a month long multi-national wildlife smuggling operation. The operation called Cobra involved 22 countries across Asia and Africa. Over 100 criminals were arrested and a wide range of wildlife merchandise confiscated. Forest Administration spokesman, vice director Yin Hong, said that this operation – the first wildlife based multi-continental investigation led by China - demonstrated that China was willing to push forward with multi-national investigations and play its role in cracking down on international wildlife trading. Details of the operation stated that more than 100 suspects were arrested by law enforcement and wildlife officials across the 22 nations taking part. Notable seizures of wildlife products included: 6.5 tonnes of ivory, 1.6 tonnes of shahtoosh, 22 rhino horns, 10 tiger hides. Other protected animals and plant species were also seized during raids.

Japan has sent a giant military icebreaker to bolster its whaling fleet in the conflict with Sea Shepherd in the Southern Ocian, anti-whaling activists say. The 12,500 tonne Shirase, operated by the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force, has appeared near whalers and Sea Shepherd, the group said. The ship was recognized on radar by its identification signal, according to Sea Shepherd. The Korean tanker Sun Laurel was making a renewed attempt to refuel the whalers' factory ship Nisshin Maru under the shelter of a Coast Guard helicopter from Shirase, Sea Shepherd's Paul Watson said.

Every bottlenose dolphin has its own whistle, a high-pitched, warbly "eeee" that tells the other dolphins that a particular individual is present. Dolphins are excellent vocal mimics, too, able to copy even quirky computer-generated sounds. So, scientists have wondered if dolphins can copy each other's signature whistles - which would be very similar to people saying each others' names. Now, an analysis of whistles recorded from hundreds of wild bottlenose dolphins confirms that they can indeed "name" each other, and suggests why they do so - a discovery that may help researchers translate more of what these brainy marine mammals are squeaking, trilling, and clicking about. Scientists discovered the dolphins' namelike whistles almost 50 years ago.

A dog inside of a church is a rather strange sight, but at the Santa Maria Assunta church in the Italian village of San Donaci, it's a routine. A seven-year-old German Shepherd named Ciccio has been regularly attending mass at the church that he used to visit with his caretaker for years. The loyal dog was adopted by Maria Margherita Lochi who passed away two months ago. Ever since, he’s been attending mass, faithfully waiting for his human companion to return.

RCMP on P.E.I. have arrested three people in connection with the death of 50 seals found on the shore on the southeastern tip of the Island in January. The arrests were made on Friday and Saturday. No charges have yet been laid, but RCMP say the three, all from Kings County, face Criminal Code charges of causing unnecessary suffering to animals. The suspects are all males - aged 15, 17 and 18 - and have been released to the custody of their parents, until their next court date, which is tentatively scheduled for April 11. The seals, many of which were pups, were discovered by a group of veterinary students on Jan 27. A subsequent necropsy on 10 of the animals found that they had been bludgeoned to death. Some had not died instantly, and had been left to die in the cold. Investigators executed four search warrants, resulting in the seizure of items they say are connected to the crime scene.

A poll out overnight found that almost a third of adults in Britain have stopped eating ready-meals as a result of the horsemeat scandal, while seven percent have stopped eating meat altogether. The ComRes survey, for the Sunday Mirror and The Independent on Sunday newspapers, found that 31 per cent have given up eating ready-meals as the discovery of equine flesh in products labelled beef spreads across Europe. The poll also found a 53 per cent to 33 per cent majority in favour of banning the import of all meat products "until we can be sure of their origin". Some 44 per cent agreed that the British government had responded well to the crisis, while 30 percent disagreed. ComRes interviewed 2,002 adults online on Wednesday and Thursday.

A piglet born without the use of its hind legs got a new lease on life when his caretaker gave him to a Florida veterinarian in January. The disabled, 1-pound pig won Dr. Len Lucero over with his adorable snorts and grunts, and the veterinarian decided to adopt him. Lucero named the piglet Chris P. Bacon after a video game character and took the little piggy to his Clermont, Fla., home, where he fashioned him a wheelchair out of K'nex construction toys.

For decades, mice have been the species of choice in the study of human diseases. But now, researchers report evidence that the mouse model has been totally misleading for at least three major killers - sepsis, burns and trauma. As a result, years and billions of dollars have been wasted following false leads, they say. Medical experts not associated with the study said that the findings should change the course of research worldwide for a deadly and frustrating condition. Ronald W. Davis, a genomics expert at Stanford University and a lead author of the new paper, said that researchers had not shown the same gene response had happened in mice and "were so used to doing mouse studies that they thought that was how you validate things. "They are so ingrained in trying to cure mice that they forget we are trying to cure humans."

Experts urged westerners to become "demi-tarians" by halving the amount of meat they eat. A report for the UN Environment Program said that pollution from fertilisers is threatening human health and the environment by causing phenomena such as toxic algal blooms. It said that 80 per cent of the nitrogen and phosphorus used in fertilisers is consumed by livestock because it is used to grow the crops they eat. The scientists, led by Professor Mark Sutton of the UK's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, said eating smaller portions or having meat every other day would help slash pollution. Europeans eat 35 per cent more protein than recommended by the World Health Organization while Americans overeat it by 58 per cent - and most of it comes from meat. Meanwhile regions such as Asia, and particularly, China, are increasingly eating meat as their economies develop. Professor Mark Sutton, chairman of the International Nitrogen Initiative, said the West needs to set an example to help slow the world's growing reliance on meat.

Dogs are more capable of understanding situations from a human's point of view than has previously been recognized, according to researchers. They found dogs were four times more likely to steal food they had been forbidden, when lights were turned off so humans in the room could not see. This suggested the dogs were able to alter their behavior when they knew their owners' perspective had changed. The study, published in Animal Cognition, conducted tests on 84 dogs. The experiments had been trying to find whether dogs could adapt their behavior in response to the changed circumstances of their human owners. It wanted to see if dogs had a "flexible understanding" that could show they understood the viewpoint of a human.

German meat production dipped in 2012, the National Statistics Office (Destatis) reported. The Wiesbaden-based bureau said last year marked the first fall in production in 15 years. Destatis figures revealed that eight million tons of meat left German slaughterhouses last year, down 1.9 percent from 2011 levels. Back in 1997, the total volume of meat produced in the country stood at just 4.9 million tons, rising gradually by almost 67 percent by 2011. Statisticians said the 2012 drop in production was above all a result of less pork being consumed in the country. Pork demand dropped by 2.5 percent year-on-year, with a total of over 58 million pigs being slaughtered, 1.4 million fewer than in the previous year. Beef production also fell by 1.9 percent, continuing a trend already seen in the past couple of years, while poultry production increasing marginally. Mutton, goat and horse meat only accounted for 0.3 percent of total meat production in 2012, with 11,300 horses slaughtered last year.

The wolverine, in spite of Hugh Jackman's fierce interpretation, resembles a small bear with a bushy tail. They tend to live in remote and inhospitable places away from human populations. In the early 20th century, wolverines were nearly eliminated from the contiguous United States due to a broad-scale predator trapping and poisoning programs. They have made a remarkable recovery since that time, however, climate warming over the next century is likely to reduce wolverine habitat. This likelihood is so high that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is proposing that Federal and State agencies take action by recommending that wolverines be listed as a threatened species. This will protect the wolverine from extinction by increasing its ability to persist regardless of climate change.

On January 14, the Animal Welfare Board of India issued a directive to state governments and fish and game officials ordering them to refuse permission to any person or group, "that proposes to import or capture any cetacean [whale or dolphin] species for training, to use as a performing animal for commercial entertainment, private or public exhibition, private or human interaction, educational or research purposes." The board, part of the Indian government's Ministry of Environment and Forests, ruled that the capture, transport or display of cetaceans was a violation of the 1960 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

Katherine Heigl's new pet line, Just One, makes sure to give back to animals. She hopes to make a difference in shelters, especially in California, as these systems are "really, really bad at this point." Just One was founded by Heigl and her mother, Nancy, about a year ago. Products include leashes, dishes, pet bag dispensers, pooper scoopers, collars. Heigl is very fond of the collars. She says they "make a statement," similar to the Livestrong bracelets, as they have "Just One" printed on them. One day, Heigl hopes people will look at these collars and immediately recognize the cause. In addition to donating a portion of the profits to homeless companion animals across the country, Just One also raises awareness for Heigl's foundation, The Jason Debus Hiegl Foundation. Founded in memory of her brother, the organization benefits rescues, animal welfare and putting a stop to animal cruelty and abuse.

A court case involving Malaysia's biggest ever seizure of trafficked Tiger parts saw the conviction of a 29-year old man, who was sentenced to a total 60 months in prison. However Mohd Nor Shahrizam Nasir, found guilty on two charges of illegal possession of Tiger parts and one for possession of African Elephant ivory, will only serve 24 months in jail as the judge ordered that his sentences run concurrently.

At least eight common dolphins have been found dead on the beaches of Achill Island, in Ireland's Co. Mayo. Unconfirmed reports suggest that there may be another dead dolphin on a nearby island and a second dolphin may have been buried on the beach. Most of the dolphins are thought to have died very recently, although there are no reports of any live strandings. While there are occasionally live strandings involving groups of dolphins, it is very unusual, in Ireland at least, to see this number of dead dolphins washed ashore over a 10 km area.

A disabled turtle pulled from a Japanese fisherman's net several years ago has been given a new lease on life with the development of high-tech, prosthetic flippers. The Agence France-Presse reports that Yu Chan, a female loggerhead turtle, made her public debut in the new flippers - her 27th pair - in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the Suma Aqualife Park in western Japan. The approximately 25-year-old turtle's road to recovery has not been an easy one. Yu was pulled from the sea in 2008, after she became tangled in fishing nets in the Kii Channel, according to National Geographic. According to Nature News Blog, she was badly wounded, with half of one forelimb and a third of another gone. Teeth marks could be observed across her body.

Poachers have killed more than 11,000 elephants in Gabon's Minkebe National Park rainforest since 2004, Gabon's government said, with the massacre fuelled by increasing demand for ivory in Asia. The densely-forested central African country is home to about half the world's roughly 100,000 remaining forest elephants, the smallest species of elephant and coveted by ivory dealers for their harder and straighter tusks. A study conducted by Gabon's government along with advocacy groups World Wildlife Fund and the Wildlife Conservation Society found two-thirds of the forest elephants in Minkebe park had been killed off since 2004, or about 11,100.

The National Institutes of Health is making progress in phasing out government-funded chimpanzee experiments and retiring most federally owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries. But the agency shouldn't hold 50 chimpanzees for future research. The report from the Council of Councils Working Group on the Use of Chimpanzees in NIH-Supported Research states that the NIH should permanently retire all but 50 of the 360 government-owned chimpanzees to a federal sanctuary program. The Working Group's report recommends that NIH should not revitalize breeding of chimpanzees for any research, including new, emerging, or re-emerging disease research. If the NIH accepts the recommendations of this report, the approximately 170 chimpanzees at the Alamogordo Primate Facility (APF) in New Mexico should be sent to sanctuaries.

The Sri Lankan government is planning to give 359 elephant tusks to a Buddhist temple, a move that critics say is flouting the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The illegal tusks were seized in Sri Lanka last May en route to Dubai from Kenya; they are believed to stem from hundreds of butchered elephants, including juveniles, inside Africa, possibly Uganda. The decision comes after a high-profile National Geographic article, Ivory Worship, outlined how demand for ivory religious handicrafts, particularly by Catholics and Buddhists, is worsening the current poaching crisis. In 2011, it was estimated that 25,000 elephants were illegally slaughtered for their tusks.

Santa Cruz Biotechnology, a supplier of antibodies to molecular biology labs worldwide, has somehow managed to hide away 841 unreported goats at their "remote barn" for biological exploitation. A tip-off led inspectors to locate the barn which held the animals, some of whom were "lame, anaemic or had protruding bones." Under the Animal Welfare Act, animals with conditions that cause them pain are to be euthanized. The USDA had cited Santa Cruz Biotechnology for violating animal welfare laws a number of times in the past as far back as 2005, when it had to pay $4,600 in fines resulting from violations in "animal sanitation, veterinary care, and training." Investigators found flies around the animals' enclosures and the use of "unacceptable forms of euthanasia, as well as using more than 1,000 rabbits when a protocol authorized the use of 80."

When police in Muang Chumphon Police station pulled a vehicle over at Baan Pala checkpoint in Pratew district they discovered a police captain driving a car containing 20 elephant tusks hidden in fertiliser bags. The police captain from the southern Thailand province of Sadao was also carrying an unregistered firearm and ammunition. Under questioning the police captain said he was hired to transport the elephant tusks from Malaysia into Thailand. Officers from Muang Chumpton arrested the captain under wildlife protection laws and for carrying illegal weapons. The police have not given details about the value of the elephant tusks but said the vlaue was "very high." Investigations are continuing into the attempt to smuggle in the tusks.

A chef is facing 67 years in jail for serving whale at a sushi bar. His assistant faces 10 years inside. The sushi bar, The Hump sushi restaurant in Santa Monica, was raided in 2010 following a sting operation run by one of the producers of the anti-whaling documentary "The Cove." Two chefs, Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, 48, of Culver City, and Susumu Ueda, 39, of Lawndale were arrested and now faces charges for illegally importing whale meat (from endangered Sei whales). The company that employed them is facing a $12 million fine. The restaurant at Santa Monica Airport has now closed but served whale from 2007 through to 2010 when the arrests were made. The whale meat was imported into the country as fatty tuna meat but DNA analysis proved it was meat from Sei whales. The two chef and the company now face a court case after a grand jury agreed with an indictment application that federal laws, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, had been broken.

For Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart, being vegan isn't only about what she eats and chooses to wear each day. As founder of fashion label Vaute Couture, her dedication to creating animal-free coats, sweaters and other cold-weather gear has earned her a global cult following among animal rights activists and eco-conscious fashionistas. This week, she took her philosophy to New York Fashion Week, where she debuted her first ready-to-wear line in a solo show Wednesday, less than five years since starting Vaute Couture in 2008. The line's aesthetic goes beyond faux fur and leather, using organic, recycled and high-tech fabrics in an effort to redefine traditional outerwear staples. Before a packed showroom in New York's Chelsea gallery district, models, accessorized with rescue dogs available for adoption, showed off Vaute's line of coats, dresses and pants of waxed canvas, velvet and moleskin, among other materials. Even the shoes, by Love is Mighty and Brave GentleMan, were vegan.

The Republic of Congo has declared a new national park that protects a core population of the 125,000 western lowland gorillas discovered by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in 2008. Called Ntokou-Pikounda National Park, the new protected area spans some 4,572 square kilometres (1,765 square miles) and contains an estimated 15,000 gorillas, 800 elephants, and 950 chimpanzees. The new park adds to Congo's impressive list of protected areas that safeguard large populations of gorillas and wide expanses of pristine habitat.

The Picos de Europa in northern Spain are a wild and wonderful spectacle, and one of the few places in Europe that wolves and bears still roam. This may now be under threat from the very authorities whose job it is meant to be to protect the area. The National Park administration has collared several wolves as part of a 300,000 Euro research program - "Monitoring populations of canids in the Picos de Europa National Park." However local authorities have also paid local hunters to eliminate some of the wolves after pressure from local farmers, and at least two of the wolves being studied, that had been fitted with GPS collars, have been killed. This medieval reaction ignores the importance of the wolf to local biodiversity, as well as its economic importance to the local tourism industry.

The Australian government's Environment Minister Tony Burke has ordered a ship with Japan's whaling fleet to immediately leave the country's economic zone, warning that it is not welcome in Australia's territorial waters. The Shonan Maru No. 2 entered Australian territory off the Macquarie Island in the Southern Ocean on Jan 31 afternoon, presumably while being pursued by environmental activist group Sea Shepherd. In a formal statement from Burke, he said that the Australian embassy in Tokyo had delivered their message to the Japanese government. Bob Brown, a former Australian political party leader and now in charge of Sea Shepherd's campaign against Japanese whaling this year, says he believes the Shonan Maru's crew are armed. Brown says that while they lost sight of the factory vessel, the Shonan Maru has followed the Bob Barker into the Australian exclusive economic zone.

The Humane Society of the United States applauds "Movie 43" star and mom-to-be Kristen Bell for calling on the National Pork Producers Council to end its endorsement of an inhumane pork industry practice that results in millions of pigs being nearly immobilized during their pregnancies. At issue is the pork industry's use of gestation crates - cages used to tightly confine breeding pigs to the point that the animals can't even turn around. The actress, is serious when it comes to defending female pigs used for breeding in the pork industry. Bell expressed her concern in a letter to Neil Dierks, CEO of the National Pork Producers Council.

A new British study finds vegetarians may have about a third less risk of hospitalization or death from cardiovascular disease than meat-eaters do. "Most of the difference in risk is probably caused by effects on cholesterol and blood pressure, and shows the important role of diet in the prevention of heart disease," lead researcher Dr. Francesca Crowe, of the cancer epidemiology unit at the University of Oxford, said in a university news release. The study included nearly 45,000 people from England and Scotland, about a third of who were vegetarians. According to the research team, having such a large proportion of vegetarians in this type of study is rare and enabled a more precise comparison of heart disease risk between vegetarians and non-vegetarians. The participants were recruited to the study throughout the 1990s, and all of them provided information about their health and lifestyle when they joined. Crowe's team found that the vegetarians had a 32 percent lower chance of being hospitalized or dying from heart disease versus people who ate meat or fish.

900 dolphins are dead in the Solomon Islands in Oceania in the Pacific Ocean due to an apparent dispute between villagers and the Earth Island Institute, a Berkeley-based conservation group. Residents of Solomon Island say that Earth Island failed to pay up to $400,000 to the village of Fanalei for agreeing to stop the traditional dolphin hunt. But Earth Island claims that a "renegade group" killed the dolphins, as "sabotage" against the group's work. The Solomon Islands have been a supplier of live dolphins sold to aquariums in China and Dubai; a single dolphin can fetch up to $150,000. The killing of nearly a thousand dolphins in the Solomon Islands sadly shows how much "misunderstanding" exists between the local residents and well-meaning environmentalists from the West.

Four-month-old rescue kitten Harvey has been given a new lease on life despite being born with bones missing from his front legs due to a rare condition called Radial Agenesis. The floppy feline was fortunately saved from a cruel owner and eventually turned over to the Glasgow, Scotland, branch of U.K. animal charity Cats Protection. Thanks to the charity's efforts, Harvey is now awaiting an operation to replace the bones with metal pins and will be placed in a "forever home" once he recovers.

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Animal Friends is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, founded in 2001 with the aim to promote animal protection and animal rights as well as veganism, as ethical, ecological and healthy lifestyle.
Animal Friends Croatia is a member organization of EVU,
Eurogroup for Animals, ECEAE, FFA, IAFC and OIPA.